June 5-6, 2025
Waldorf Astoria Monarch BeachDana Point, CAPreliminary Agenda
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Outlook for mortgage markets: assessing macro volatility
- Implications of high rates on origination, securitization volumes and performance of existing loans/bonds
- How are you underwriting for different interest rate scenarios?
- Inflation, labor markets and wage growth assessment on interest rates and business prospects
- Impact of administration and policy changes on residential mortgages
- Potential privatization of GSEs and changes at HUD, CFPB and other bodies
- Update on government mortgage programs and how they influence home ownership and non-QM lending
- How are lending standards cha
- ging by product and lender type?
- Employment and small business trends
- Impact of the growing single family rental and vacation rental markets
- Allocating resources to cybersecurity given recent attacks
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Borrower trends & housing market outlook
- Who are the borrowers in 2025?
- Alternative credit data - will bank statements, rent payments and other non-traditional data help expand access to loans for a broader range of borrowers?
- What strategies can lenders use to target younger buyers?
- How will elevated rates affect mortgage affordability and demand, particularly for first-time buyers and refinancing?
- What steps can lenders take to address the growing demand from Black, Latino, Native American and other underserved communities?
- What changes are needed to better serve self-employed workers and gig economy participants in the mortgage market?
- What is the outlook for home prices and supply?
- How will migration and demographic shifts affect housing demand?
- What role do climate-related factors play in housing decisions? How will increasing natural disaster risks impact demand in vulnerable housing markets?
- What actions can policymakers and industry participants take to mitigate the impact of rising home prices and interest rates on homebuyers?
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Non-QM originator C-suite perspectives
- How are you growing your business this year? Organic vs. inorganic
- Which channels are you putting most resources into?
- Where do the most appealing M&A opportunities lie? What makes them attractive?
- How are you investing in technology and in your team to boost organic growth?
- Where are you seeing the best ROI and increase in productivity?
- What are your expectations for the remainder of the year?
- The latest with Bank Statement, Investor Cash Flow, ITIN, ATR-in-Full, DSCR, Jumbo, Fix & Flip, Temp Buydowns and other core products
- Outlook for purchase and refinance volume
- Which markets are currently underserved and ripe for growth?
- State licensing requirements for non-QM lending
- What do you expect to see from a liquidity perspective over the next year or so?
- How are you funding your loans in this capital markets environment? What are investors looking for today?
- How has the adoption of digital platforms, automation and data analytics impacted origination?
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Channel growth & optimization: direct vs. correspondent vs. wholesale vs. retail
- Which channels do you want to form the core part of your strategy moving forward? Why?
- Multiple channels or specializing and excelling in one or two?
- What to know before entering a new channel?
- How much time and money are you investing into educating other parties on non-QM products and underwriting guidelines?
- Delegated vs. non-delegated partnerships
- Impact of the work from home environment in originating and servicing loans
- For your non-delegated underwriting option, what is the average turn time for prior to close conditions?
- How do you get comfortable that your correspondent client can underwrite a bank statement loan and sell to you as a delegated correspondent?
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Buyers & sellers roundtable: acquisition, disposition & relative value strategies
- What is your current strategy with regards to trading non-QM loans?
- What IRRs are you modeling for?
- Identifying a seller/buyer
- How is the bid process changing?
- What do you think of investor loans? Underwriting vacation rental income?
- Foreclosure moratorium impact
- Risk assessment and due diligence
- Selling on flow vs. bulk and hedging implications
- Are you asking for right & warranty insurance to get more comfortable with collateral?
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Overcoming obstacles faced by institutional investors looking at Non-QM
- What types of institutional investors are actively investing in non-QMs and who is interested but stuck on the sidelines?
- How can institutional investors participate in the market? Which channels are most accessible?
- How best to target yield?
- What considerations are key when building a whole loan investment platform?
- Pros and cons of joint ventures, strategic partnerships and special purpose vehicles
- What are institutional investors looking for in a lender partner?
- Assessing appetite for securitization, wholesale, correspondent and other channels
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Non-agency mortgage securitization market updates
- Non-QM issuance data and performance vs. other private-label RMBS segments
- What are the top concerns for issuers and investors in today’s market?
- How are non-QM loans performing relative to GSE originated mortgages and other consumer asset classes?
- How are you financing loans? Have terms changed in the past 18 months?
- What do you expect with regards to liquidity in the market over the next year?
- Any recent changes from warehouse lenders?
- Dealing with early pay outs
- Holding on balance sheet vs. retention length before selling whole loans or securitizing
- Keys to getting a highly-rated securitization
- How are you attracting new investors?
- Review of collateral strength and performance: can we expect more delinquencies?
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New product innovation: what does the market need?
- Where do you see opportunities for new products in the coming year?
- Which borrower types do you anticipate will generate most demand?
- What strategies are you implementing to expand the pool of borrowers?
- Revenue vs. margin: what are you targeting?
- Potential products for those with lower incomes
- Which new products are most popular with capital providers, brokers and correspondents?
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Investment property & business purpose loans
- Single Family Rental, Fix & Flip & Short-Term/Vacation Rental
- SFR, STR and second home market trends: what is demand set to look like?
- Why is the outlook for residential investment property lending likely to remain strong even as rates climb?
- What are the benefits of originating investment property loans compared to consumer mortgages? How do you get started?
- Underwriting DSCR and Bridge loans
- Technology trends and platform services
- Comparing 30 year fixed vs. investment products
- What kind of new products are out there?
- LTV and FICO requirements and calculating DSCR
- Tools for assessing properties for SFR and STR investment
- Appraisal innovations and form 1007 alternatives
- Cross collateralization
- Owner occupied vs. non-owner occupied
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Valuation, risk management & hedging best practices
- How are you assessing risk across the pipeline and in the underwriting process?
- What tools do you use to assist in valuations and risk management?
- Risk-sharing agreements, insurance options and contingency plans to address unexpected challenges
- How are assumptions and estimates changing?
- Current costs of active risk management
- What is your current strategy: holding on balance sheet, selling on flow, bulk etc.?
- Loan buyback requirements, reps and warrants
- How has the Fed’s activity impacted your hedging strategy?
- Credit score and interest rate hedging policy and performance
- Hedging non-QM pipelines in a high interest rate environment
- Are warehouse lenders stipulating that you must hedge?
- How do you look at modeling property values given housing shortages, the affordability crisis and its impact on credit risk?
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Preparing for regulatory and compliance changes
- How are you preparing in this period of extreme uncertainty? Business as usual?
- Are there specific policy interventions that you believe could positively or negatively affect the mortgage market and non-QM more specifically?
- Any updates to audit requirements and procedures from a regulatory standpoint?
- Voluntary standards for servicers
- Fair lending: originator and broker requirements, internal benchmarks and enforcement
- Local regulatory changes and proposals to keep an eye on
- What are the biggest compliance risks you are dealing with? What are the newest ones that you are paying attention to?
- Are there increasing fraud risks in the market? What do they look like and how are they prevented?
- What do asset management and investor compliance officers look for?
- How does your underwriting system ensure compliance?
- HMDA, Fair Lending, ATR/QM and CECL: what are the pain points?
- What should an automated compliance solution look like?
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Attracting borrowers through marketing and education
- What do brokers need to know about non-QM underwriting guidelines?
- How can lenders show they can provide a mortgage solution that fits in with the borrower’s financial plan?
- What technology are you employing to reach clients?
- Looking for second home and investment property customers
- How is marketing non-QM products different to QM?
- Pre-approval education and time needed
- What are the biggest pain points for a consumer in pre-approval?
- Different demographic strategies and the work from home environment
- Unique issues surrounding business purpose loans
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Innovation in underwriting processes, standards & automation technology
- What are the key differences and complexities in pre-qualifying non-QM loans compared with QM loans?
- Credit, capacity and collateral: how are your evaluation methods and standards evolving?
- How useful are borrower FICO scores today in predicting loan performance success?
- Has your appetite for risk changed in the past 12-18 months?
- How is automation changing underwriting?
- Which new AUS features are improving and optimizing the underwriting process?
- What due diligence procedures are in place to mitigate for fraud risk?
- What are you doing to improve underwriting productivity?
- Delegated vs. non-delegated underwriting pros and cons
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Updating your technology stack to improve the lender, broker & borrower experience
- What does your current tech stack look like?
- Identifying crucial and value-add technologies at each stage of the mortgage life cycle
- Where are you investing most heavily? How do you track ROI?
- How are you using technology and process adaptations to effectively communicate between lenders, brokers and borrowers?
- What are the benefits and risks of investing in technology and partnering with third-parties?
- How are innovations in technology impacting origination and loan performance? What risks are they helping to identify and mitigate?
- How are you leveraging technology to manage compliance, hiring and training?
- What are the resource expectations and costs associated with implementing and effectively utilizing these systems?
- How do you successfully implement and integrate a new technology platform/product and ensure minimal disruption to day-to-day business functions?
- How do you approach training the lender, broker and borrower?
- What are the latest advancements in AI and automation?
- Implementing AI solutions and getting buy-in from employees and clients
- What are the key borrower pain points and how have you designed your porta to alleviate these?
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Insights into non-QM loan servicing dynamics
- What are the unique challenges and characteristics of servicing non-QM loans?
- What advantages does specialized expertise bring to handling these distinctive characteristics and challenges?
- How are advancements in technology, automation and data analytics influencing and improving efficiency in non-QM loan servicing?
- How are loan modification strategies tailored to the unique needs of non-QM borrowers? How flexible are they right now?
- What is the latest with e-modifications?
- How is the increasing interest from investors in non-QM securities influencing the practices of loan servicers? How do servicers align with investor expectations in the expanding non-QM market?
- Communication with borrowers to ensure satisfaction and repayment
- What are the leading indicators of a loan that eventually becomes non-performing?
- How are you alleviating the main loan onboarding pain points?
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Working with mortgage lenders: broker/correspondent perspectives
- Sources of capital for correspondent lending today
- How are you navigating the challenges of finding suitable wholesale and correspondent lenders for table funding arrangements?
- How do you identifying non-QM lenders to work with?
- What non-QM loan products and types are correspondents finding most appealing today?
- Which guidelines are you implementing with your correspondent lenders?
- What business characteristics are you most focused on? Product, people, tech, performance etc.
- Which parts of the lender’s business do you scrutinize most?
- How do you manage the relationship to ensure it continues to be successful for all parties?
- Differences between identifying and securing a QM vs. non-QM lender
- What methods are you using to market yourself as a non-QM broker?
- Payout structures for you and your team
- What would you like mortgage lenders to know about entering the wholesale or correspondent channels for the first time?
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Unlocking opportunities: exploring private sources of funding for mortgage lenders
- How are you sourcing capital in today’s market?
- What is the impact of private capital on the mortgage lending landscape?
- How can mortgage lenders strategically integrate private funding into their overall financing strategies, emphasizing the benefits of diversification and risk mitigation?
- What are your capital providers demanding of you?
- What type of risk are they willing to fund? Regions, product types, credit and other parameters
- How does private funding offer tailored solutions to mortgage lenders, enabling flexibility and facilitating quick decision-making?
- In what ways can private funding complement traditional funding sources in a lender's portfolio, contributing to a well-rounded and diversified financing strategy?
- Warehouse lines, securitization, selling servicing rights
- How do correspondent lenders choose their funding sources for table funding?
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Innovations & collaborations in mortgage origination through table funding
- How is the role of mortgage brokers in the table funding process evolving?
- Address the impact of technology on the relationship between mortgage brokers and wholesale lenders
- What are the benefits and challenges correspondent lenders face when working with multiple wholesale lenders?
- Discuss updates in technology and data sharing that enhance communication and collaboration between wholesale lenders and correspondent lenders
- Managing risk and compliance
- How does table funding impact the borrower experience during the mortgage origination process?
- Transparency and communication strategies to keep borrowers informed about the funding source and the closing process
- Utilizing technology to improve efficiency and reduce errors in table funding transactions
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Women in Residential Mortgages small group roundtable
Open to all attendees, this interactive session will welcome industry participants of all levels of experience to share best practices, strategies and experiences in the pursuit of creating a more diverse, inclusive and equitable industry. All participants are encouraged to be actively involved in the conversation and to come prepared to share experiences and insights that will benefit your colleagues in the audience. We would like to encourage men to attend the session as well.