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I am very happy that my life is perfect. Isn’t yours? When I order scrambled eggs at the diner, the waitress says, “Perfect.” When I pay with a credit card at the car wash, the attendant replies with, “Perfect.” I tell the dry cleaner I’d like my shirts not wrapped in plastic. “Perfect.” Watch out for those “perfects” out there. One thing that was definitely not perfect was the ending of 2022 for residential lenders and their vendors. Just because the calendar turned a day or two doesn’t mean rates have done much, nor margins, nor revenue. Ready for a repeat of the 4th quarter of 2022 in the 1st quarter of 2023? Have vendors and lenders made the necessary cuts, in sales and operations, to keep pace with industry volumes being down 50 percent from a few years ago? How’s your “tech spend” as you enter 2023? (Let’s ask Southwest Airlines how its low tech spend worked out. Speaking of S ....
Lenders continue to adapt, and LOs are adding value by being subject matter experts and marketing accordingly. (For example, today’s podcast features an interview with Bob Griffith, General Manager of Home Services at Houwzer, on using a client’s 401k to help finance a house.) Marketing is a fickle mistress. Ever “opt out” of receiving ads? The people that advertisers most want to target are hiding from the advertisers (thank you to Carla M. for sending that in). The implications to marketing efforts for any lender or vendor are clear. The implications of falling volume, margins, and revenue are clear as well: they’re leaving plans for 2022 in a shambles for most lenders and vendors. Every lender and originator know that 2020 and 2021 were not forecast to be record-breaking origination years, but they were. And if 2022 weighs in at $2 trillion in residential fundings, it will be a top 10 year. But still, volumes being down 50 percent from a year ago c ....