Val's Vibe - Episode 7: First Episode of 2025!

 Welcome to the kickoff of 2025 with Val's Vibe! Hosted by Valerie Saunders, this podcast dives into the mortgage industry, personal growth, and professional insights. Valerie, a seasoned industry expert and advocate, shares her thoughts on industry trends, stability predictions, and opportunities for growth in 2025.

This episode reflects on her journey, professional highlights, and key industry forecasts, including interest rate stabilization, evolving technology, and upcoming regulatory changes. Whether you're a mortgage pro or simply curious about the industry, tune in for actionable insights, inspiration, and real talk.

Want to join the conversation? Reach out and be part of Val's Vibe! 

Transcript

 📍 Hey everybody, welcome to the first episode for 2025 of Val's Vibe. My name is Valerie Saunders and I really appreciate you tuning in to this podcast. If you have listened to any of my other podcasts previously from 2024, thank you so much. I really appreciate you supporting this endeavor that I chose to take on.

It's really been a cathartic experience being able to share my thoughts, whether from a personal perspective or from a professional perspective, but also just being able to talk to people who are friends or peers and hearing their thoughts, either in the business or ways that they're increasing their loan origination volume, or just increasing their growth within themselves personally.

So I really appreciate it. If you're not familiar with me I do have several jobs. I am one of those people. I am a, I'm not necessarily workaholic. I just like to stay busy and I like to be committed and devoted to the things that are important to me. And I hope  some of that contributes to the growth and improvements of people around me. So I am currently the chief executive strategist for the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. From 23 to 24, I did serve as president. Prior to my current position and being president, I did serve on the board of directors for approximately 10 years.

Previously was also executive director of the organization. I'm settling into this position and really enjoying it being able to obviously continue my work within the national association of mortgage brokers and also within the loan the loan origination industry itself. Prior to that, I did serve three terms as president of the Florida Association of Mortgage Professionals, active within my chapter.

I live here in Florida, in the North Florida area, Jacksonville area in particular. I do also own a mortgage broker business. That business I've owned since 2006. I became a licensed loan originator or mortgage broker back then in 2001. Also, I do own a title company. I've owned that title company since the early 2000s as well.

So I really have devoted myself from a professional perspective to the mortgage industry. My involvement in trade associations has really helped me be able to provide a voice not just to myself, but to loan originators and other individuals within the mortgage industry, who either may not be able to devote the time that is necessary to trade associations, or, just that's not their cup of tea.

So I have you know, represented from a state and a federal level mortgage loan originators in the mortgage industry in the Florida legislature within Congress, spoken to  individuals within the CFPB, FHFA, HUD, VA. I did back, in 2013, w ork on legislation on a state level within Florida deregulating Florida's lending law got rid of any state specific forms that really added  confusion to the mortgage origination process.

We used to have a mortgage broker agreement that went away in 2014. So I've really tried to take my involvement in trade associations, my knowledge about the mortgage industry, and really direct that into Improving the mortgage experience, of course, for consumers, but also for all of us mortgage professionals who are involved in the industry.

I do want to do say a little bit about 2025. I, of course, just like everybody else, my crystal ball is broken, but I do see some stability and interest rates around that 6 percent level. I know other associations like MBA are also anticipating that potentially dipping into that 5. 9 percent rate by the end of 25.

This stabilization is a great thing for not just the mortgage industry, but for consumers. It's going to support greater homebuyer demand. Hopefully will also lead to the increase of inventory of existing homes available for purchase. Also, I think it will lead to increased mortgage origination volume.

We still have that situation within the U. S. Our equity that we've built up in our homes is at an all time high. So whether you're choosing to sell your existing property, and maybe go to a larger home, or maybe you're downsizing, or you're choosing to utilize that equity to pay off credit card debt, do cash out home improvements, Pay off student loans, whatever the case may be, I think 2025 is a prime time to be doing those types of activities. I think we're also going to see a lot of technological advancements. I know that not just technology focused product companies, but also all of our wholesale lenders that we do business with are spending a lot of time focusing their efforts on AI, what they can do with the data that they have available to them, how that can improve the origination and loan application experience.

And so I think we're going to see a lot of advancements here in 25. Will there be regulatory changes? Yes, absolutely. I do believe that will happen. I know that the National Association of Mortgage Brokers is currently looking at regulatory priorities.  Th ose are things that can happen much quicker than legislative changes.

But I know that there will be changes within FHFA. Within CFPB. We already know that a new commissioner of HUD has been named. So I think all of those things are going to lead to some regulatory changes. Hopefully those changes will be for the better. We do know also that the trigger leads legislation will be reintroduced here shortly within Congress both on a house and a Senate level.

That fight will continue. Not just by the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, but by all of the other trade associations that diligently worked towards having that legislation passed by the end of 24, and the 118th Congress. Today, January 3rd,  is the start of the 119th Congress. So the fight will continue.

So keep your eyes on that. Also, I think, what is the key word for 25? I think it's going to be stability. I think we're going to se e things level out to where we can really take a more retrospective look at ourselves from a business perspective and be able to decide what we want to focus our time, energy, and efforts on.

Of course, we always want to close more loans. We always want to help more consumers. But by things being a little bit more stabilized, We aren't sitting there constantly looking and waiting for the Fed to lower the rates, waiting for something to happen. We can now take those, that energy and effort, and look at our business and look at ways that we can Grow our business, advance ourselves from a technological perspective, and really help ourselves create a roadmap for success well into the future.

So I think for the industry, the key word is going to be stabilization. Knock on wood, we'll see what happens. It's January 3rd. Hopefully some of these predictions come true. But, over the course of 2025, we'll continue to retrospectively look back at this podcast and see if some of these comments did wind up coming to fruition or if things change.

Of course, change is also another word within the mortgage industry. It doesn't matter what year it is, but there will always be some sort of change. That's my two cents worth for my first podcast for 25. Give me your thoughts. Also, if you would like to be part of the Val's Vibe podcast, please reach out to me.

I'll give my contact information here at the end of this podcast. I would love to hear your thoughts. I would love to We can really scratch the surface of what we think could happen, should happen, or will happen. Thanks again, everybody. I hope that you have a great weekend, and I look forward to talking to you again on another episode of Val's Vibe.