Oct. 5, 2026

Be In All The Lanes with Ashley Puckett

Capital markets touches everything.

Pricing.
Risk.
Investor delivery.
Loan officer confidence.
Operations.
Execution.
The final result the borrower feels.

In this episode of The MikedUp Show, Michael Kelleher and Michael Zau sit down with Ashley Puckett, AVP of Capital Markets at Novus Home Mortgage, for a conversation about what it really means to understand the mortgage business from more than one seat.

Ashley’s career has been built through curiosity, consistency, and a willingness to learn the parts of the business most people never see. She started in the mortgage industry in 2011 as a loan processor, moved into post closing, and eventually found her lane in secondary marketing and capital markets. She has since earned both her AMP and CMB designations, reflecting a serious commitment to education, growth, and mastery in the industry. Newslink

That path matters.

Because capital markets is not isolated from the rest of the company. It connects directly to how loans are priced, how files are delivered, how risk is managed, how investors are served, and how loan officers compete in the field. Ashley’s role gives her a view across the entire mortgage machine.

That is the center of this episode.

Be in All the Lanes is about refusing to stay boxed into one narrow version of mortgage.

It is about understanding how the pieces connect.

It is about learning the work behind the work.

It is about being the person others can call when the file is complicated, the delivery is tight, or the answer is not obvious.

Ashley has also been recognized for her leadership and commitment to helping others grow. Her Women in Housing Leadership Award nomination highlighted how she trains, mentors, and supports others with patience and clarity, especially in capital markets roles that can feel intimidating to people early in their careers.

The episode also looks at why mentorship matters in mortgage. Ashley’s story is not only about personal achievement. It is about the people who taught her, the designations she pursued, the network she built, and the responsibility she now feels to bring others along.

At Novus Home Mortgage, that perspective fits into a company focused on creating a simpler, smoother, and more transparent mortgage experience with a mix of personal guidance and modern technology. Novus describes its approach as combining personalized expert guidance with mortgage technology to help borrowers move forward with confidence. Novus Home Mortgage

This conversation is for anyone in mortgage who wants to grow beyond their current role.

For loan officers, it is a reminder that pricing and execution matter.

For operations teams, it is a reminder that every handoff matters.

For capital markets professionals, it is a reminder that your work shapes the business more than people may realize.

And for rising leaders, it is a reminder that being in all the lanes does not mean doing everything at once.

It means understanding enough to lead with confidence.

Watch and listen to the full episode of The MikedUp Show.

Visit us at https://www.mikedupshow.com

Follow Adopt The Brand on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/adopt-the-brand

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Truework
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Addy AI
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TRUE
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Covered Insurance
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Friday Harbor
Friday Harbor brings AI into mortgage origination and underwriting, helping lenders create cleaner, more complete loan files earlier in the process. It supports teams working to move faster with fewer surprises.
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AskBob AI
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FICO
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First American
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SharkeyByte
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SEI AI
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Transcript

WEBVTT

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Hello and welcome to the Mic'd Up Show. This is the ultimate hub where the hidden stories behind the mortgage industry come to life. I'm Mike Kelleher and in every episode we dive deep into the entrepreneurial spirits, the strategic insights and the breakthrough innovations that built the world's greatest mortgage companies. So whether you're advancing your career, scouting for industry leaders or exploring opportunities in fintech prop tech, you're in the right place. Get ready to unlock the story behind every mortgage. Let's dive in with our guest, Ashley Puckett, who is AVP of Capital markets at Novus Home Mortgage. For those and I always get reminded to not use acronyms, not really an acronym, but capital markets in mortgage is the expert who determines the pricing and how to handle the pricing that you would see as a consumer based on the market in Wall street, investors, etc. So we'll get into it more but we've been getting a lot of requests lately to have more capital markets people on the show as the headlines have been a lot about mortgage rates, affordability. Can I get back to my current interest rate or am I stuck in a golden handcuff? And so Ashley is the perfect person. As I always try to say. Part of my identity is going to mortgage conferences. Part of this show is to bring you people that go to mortgage conferences so you don't have to go. I have run into Ashley over the years at many mortgage conferences, especially the secondary mortgage in New York, which is where capital markets people go. We do have something kind of in common, I suppose. My father served for the army, drafted in Vietnam, but he actually ended up getting stationed on a boat out in Navy boat out in Germany. And Ashley is in, I think it's appropriate to say an army kid who lived in Germany. So she grew up, she's been I guess overseas. She's grown up around Augusta, Georgia. She knows really large geographic idea of where things are going or that's kind of part of how you price And I think was it nine and a half years out of Marisave and now you for Vellum Mortgage you work for a leader, Eric, who was at Waterstone bank before and he's just someone that everybody follows. So you and he hires great leadership that represents him. So obviously we are in great hands today to have someone like yourself and an expert. Anybody on my show is somebody I look up to or find to be an expert over the years of going to the conferences. And I know you're busy and I know the markets make you busy these days. So thank you for taking the time, Ashley, to come on the show.

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Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be on the show. Look forward to the conversation today.

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Last time we were in a room together it was in Atlanta. I do these dinners with housing wire and sapiens and it, I think when you get lenders together in any market, they can begin to, and they're allowed to talk freely, they can sort of let out some of the fears they have on the headwinds of this, this industry where it's going. We were talking about it before you jumped on. But what, what do you see as the market right now where you know, many people are in a lower rate than what is out there in the market? What would you consider are the headwinds from a capital markets perspective that consumers are facing today?

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Yeah, so I, you know, first off, first time home buyers, right, it's, it's very hard for younger generation and I say younger generation meaning twenties, even into early thirties, right, to be able to afford to get in homes. So the rates that they are now, we're having a huge affordability crisis, right, with people getting into homes. We need those first time home buyers and we want them there but with the rates being way they are. And then, you know, prior to this we had spoken about just home values increasing during the COVID years too, right? It makes it really hard for someone that is straight out of college, maybe even into young professional lifestyle, late 20s, early 30s to be able to afford to get into, into those properties. So that's one concern and I think that is a concern of the industry as a whole. Right? But people that currently have mortgages and I know I bought May 2020 and I have a very low rate and you know, having the equity in the house because the values went up and you know, maybe you do want to do a cash out refi, right? You want to get some of that equity out and you want to be able to put it towards home improvements, sending a child off to college, you know, paying for emergencies, whatever it may be. People are stuck, you know, they don't want to get rid of their three percent, three and a quarter percent note rate loans. So now I feel like the big thing is, you know, helocs tapping into that equity, right? And getting that, getting that secondary loan on your property. And we're seeing an uptick across the, across originations where a lot of lenders are kind of leaning in to that business model and you know, making that a bigger portion of their overall production to help people get the funds that they need based off the equity in their properties.

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You can tell you speak from experience, and I think that is very important. And with experience in the mortgage industry, I think some of the hurdles are there's not always a direct line of where you can take your career or retire with your career, unless you just sell and you fit what Mike and I talk about all the time, which

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is

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either the show is actually made so loan officers, processors can see other people in the career that were loan officers and processors at one point. And you've gone from a processor to on the trading desk. As a former loan officer that always called himself a financial planner out of insecurities of being a finance and accounting major and everybody hating on me being a mortgage broker at the time, I think anybody in this industry has a fascination with trading desk and, and being in finance. So hopefully if somebody's listening along that way. We talk a lot about this show about certified mortgage bankers and we used to call it cmb, but again, we're staying away from the acronyms now. We, we were told that not everybody knows what that is. I think you did it. I've been slowly going on this journey and it actually is as what people were saying. And I was like, I can just crank it out, but you can't. And. But the closest thing to being able to do it is I think you did it with like three months with two kids. Can you just. I was talking with Bob Brosmith actually, or no, Brian Bu, somebody from the mba, and I was kind of laughing and I'm saying, I think there's a saying that what a certified mortgage banker means to the Mortgage Bankers association is if a senator sits down in the airplane and somebody with CMB license sits next to them, are they going to be able to articulate what the mortgage industry is, what their views on current policy is, and are they a representation of who we want Congress to think we are? Can you just describe, I guess, certified mortgage bank or what it means to you and what your, what your amplification of it would be for anybody that is trying to grow their career?

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Yeah, so for me, it's. It's really about giving back to the industry. Right. It's being a resource for not only my company, but anyone out there that needs, that needs a resource. And so for me, my way of giving back to the industry, obviously getting your certified mortgage bankers designation, also have my accredited mortgage professional designation too, is really putting the time, the effort, asking the questions, like really learning about other facets of the industry that maybe I haven't sat in that seat before. Right. And being able to really learn from a wide variety of mentors, people that have been the industry 20, 30, 40 years, you know, and ask them questions like, okay, well how was this 30 years ago compared to what it is now? Right. So just being a resource, being able to have the connections to ask questions if I need something is invaluable I think in this industry. Right, right. So I always encourage anyone that has a curious mind that likes to ask questions, that likes to kind of know, you know, full life cycle of loan origination to, to go through the program. I mean, you learn and meet so many different people. And through me getting my two designations, I've met some of my industry best friends doing it. Right. And, and I have their sales cell phone numbers. I can call, I can text at any time and just this great network of people. It really is like I said, just you have information out there. If I have questions, I know I have an entire group of people I can go and ask.

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Yeah, you said on another podcast, I don't want to stay in one lane, I want to go in all the lanes. I think that's an example of you. You were able to get those, the amp, the cmb, while obviously with your kids and working, you know, the full time job. There's an old proverb, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. So when you're in all these lanes and you're doing all these things, how in capital markets obviously touches everybody in the company, how do you connect with the people you serve? So the loan officers, the investors, even like the borrowers behind every lock. How do you build those relationships and how do you tell everybody in the ecosystem why the other person matters in that ecosystem?

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Yes. As far as a loan officer goes, in just coming from the capital market secondary perspective, they are our client, right. We are helping them on a daily basis. Hey, we are running a scenario in optimal blue, right. We're not getting pricing for this and, and just being able to pick up the phone, do a screen share, like really help them through that process, you know, as. Even though we work together, they're our client. Right. We're trying to help them. And then there are connection to the borrower, right. Like what does the borrower need? What are, what are they looking to do in this transaction? Is there an exception that can be made? Is there a way that we can rework a file to make it work for them? Maybe we're not looking at the right product Right. So maybe they don't fit into an agency product. So maybe we go into non qm. Right. And just being able to have the resources and products out there to help our LOS make that determination with their clients. And then from an investor perspective, I'm the client of the investor. Right. So really making sure that I have communication with my investors on a regular basis to, you know, not only make sure that pricing is there, but are they, are they hitting their target too?

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Right.

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Are our files sitting out there on, on their lines waiting to be audited? 7, 10 business days in this market, we don't, we don't have time. Right. We want our files to, to move through quickly when we want them to be purchased quickly to get off our warehouse lines. And so it's, you know, making sure that they know our expectations and just kind of working together in that sense to make sure that both of our end goals are met.

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How do you create the same level of connection with your team? I think is what he was asking Ashley.

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Yeah, of course. So what I love about he was

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asking in the lens of like obviously with video. And now I don't know if you guys are back in person or you're so spread out. I know you're in Georgia. I think the corporate office is up in, I'm guessing Minnesota, somewhere around there.

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Yeah.

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I hope everybody's kind of facing that. But do you find the connection levels deteriorating or do you think it, it works well still in this post Covid world? And how do you manage?

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Yeah, yeah, I still think it works well. Right. But we have to make an effort to make sure it works well. So what I absolutely love about our team and my manager, she has been so good about this is every morning, if you're able to hop on nine eastern, we have morning coffee talk and that's our time to talk about everything that is not mortgage related. Hey, what are you doing this weekend? You know, what do you have going on? How are the kids? Oh, how was their baseball game? You know, to really be able to get on that personal level since we're not all in the office together. And then from there, 9:30 every morning we have a team call. What do we have going on for the day? Are there any issues that were unresolved from yesterday? What do we need to discuss? How do we need to prep our day? So I think having those daily calls like really brings everyone together in that sense where yeah, maybe I'm not physically sitting in the corporate office. Right. But I still feel very connected to my team. Even though we're spread out in, in

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that light, I'm at a conference now. Everybody talks about AI and digital and technology, but I think it distracts a little bit from the fact that

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the

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news talks about where it's going. But we sit right now in, in where we are. Do you have systems or habits that you have your team aligned with you or do you find there's a certain expectation from loan officers on what they expect out of their capital market updates besides just hoping you say rates are going go down, but like what, what is, what does that look like to keep in lock step with the loan officers to help them produce more?

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Yeah. So we do a couple of different internal conferences a year so that, you know, the, the los, they have access to us like Q and A sessions, things like that. Right. And just state of the market type information to update them. But on a monthly basis we actually do a talk the LOCK series. So the, the entire secondary capital markets team is on there and the LOS are able to submit topics, questions they want to talk about. Obviously chats open, so if they have specific questions. But we do that on a monthly basis so they kind of know what's going on, any new products that we're rolling out, any new initiatives. If they have questions on processes, maybe we're about to implement a new process. Right. So we're touching base with them on a regular basis so they know what's going on with us and then. Yeah, I mean at any point in time they have access to us, they can send us a teams message, pick up the phone, call us, schedule a meeting, email us, and we're pretty quick to respond and hop on a call with them. So I feel like even though we have a good amount of branches at our company, our secondary capital markets team is super small. So they get that kind of small IMB service from us. Right. Which absolutely love.

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And I feel like a loan officer's capital markets daily routine is at least when I was originating in some form, you're playing around with llpas. You're playing around with scenarios. You're trying to put at least in this market, a circle into a square. But what does somebody on the capital markets desk know at 8am that a loan officer might not know until noon that that day?

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Yeah, I would say if there was any overnight movement in other markets. Right. If there's any economic news that's coming out 8:15, 8:30 in the morning, before the investors price out, the rate sheet, their rate sheets, and before they see that pricing and ob. Right. So we're kind of seeing that up front. And you know, the los, they have access to MBS Live and some other, you know, market commentary subscriptions. But for us, like we're using a live market screen. Right. So we're seeing in real time how the market's shifting Any specific market related news to our, to our market. You know, we're reaching out to our industry friends too. Like, hey, what are y' all going to do here? Right. I feel like in Atlanta specifically, we have a very good capital markets group of people in Atlanta through different companies and we're in constant communication and I think that benefits everyone's LOS at all the various companies, right. That if we see, you know, market sliding, rallying, we use a lot of the same systems to kind of know ahead of time like, hey, this is what our plan should be. Do we need to pivot in real time? Do we need to delay pricing for the day? Right. Do we need to turn pricing off? So I think all those factors go into it and the LOS aren't really necessarily seeing that until all the rate sheets are out for the day where they can have, you know, open pricing to lock.

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Yeah. And when, when I look at the macro view of the lending industry at these conferences, I try to remind people the loan officers are the mortgage company's customers. I fundamentally believe that because the cost of acquisition is just not low enough. But in that lens, and I'm sure that's important for you, retention is important. Anything you can do to lift the tide with retention. But in capital markets is, do you have to balance that? Like, are the investors like Ashley's customers as well, keeping them happy?

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Well, of course, investors always want more volume. Right. And then the counter to that is, you know, for us. Okay, well, you know, speed up your review times, like let's get a higher percentage of first pass rates to get loans purchased. And then it all comes down to pricing. Right. I mean, I think most people in my position that are selling to agency pulling to Ginnie Mae and also selling to the aggregators and this type of market, I mean, you're really looking for that best execution. Right? So it really comes down to that and just having those conversations, sending color over to the investors so they see where they stand, you know, and we do monthly calls with some of our investors. You know, we have our monthly reports that we're sending them, like, hey, here's where you stacked up in volume and pricing and all that. And like, like I said, we try to keep in constant communication with them. Me Being a client of the investor. But, you know, we want to be able to sell to them, but at what cost? Right. So it's just being transparent. I think for them that makes sense.

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And Mike had a question here. I'll try and translate it. So you were just talking about how you, you have those conversations as you grow and you know, Novus is growing and growing. So your workload is growing and growing. Do you find that you're, the people that you communicate with is narrowing to just secondary? Mike point out we had Eddie Perez and Nick Habarcus on the show and, and they both talked about how being they were in the same CMB class and it's part of the same flight of executives and, and they network with each other, but they have different roles. Do you still network with people outside of capital markets or is the stress of capital markets so tight right now and you growing so fast? It's like, it's just kind of narrowed the, the lens.

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No, I network with everyone. And, you know, kind of the, the point of this, of this segment. Right. As I like to be in, in all lanes, I like to know, like the whole ecosystem, you know, what's going on on the loan originator side, what's going on in operations, you know, what's kind of coming down the pipeline. What do we need to be aware of? You know, a big, a big conversation point right now is vantage toward, you know, 4.0 FICO 10T. Right. So how, how is that going to affect operations? How are we going to implement that directly goes to capital markets, right? Like what kind of pricing? How are we going to decide? Okay, we have all of these scores. How, like, how are we going to make the decision? What is the decision score for our pricing? You know, so I like to know what's going on and I know that capital markets can be stressful, especially this year, but I think it's, I think it's crucial for anyone that's in capital markets to still have like a pulse on what's going on in the other departments, you know, because we're up front and we're also the back end, you know, so if there are issues in between, if we need to readjust something, I think it's crucial to have conversations with everyone.

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Like what you just described, like, education is power. Having conversations. We talk a lot about this show, so we'll just get your sound bite on it. But what role does education play in the way you serve the business? Develop the people around you on your desks, and then what would be Your advice to loan officers on how they should be educating to get what you're doing out to the streets.

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Yeah. So for me, I mean, education is top priority. Right. And I also like to call myself a connector. I like connecting people, whether that's in capital markets or elsewhere. You know, I have friends in every single facet of this industry and if I'm in a conversation and we're talking about something and they need help, like I might not be able to help you or answer you, but I have a friend that can and I'll connect you guys, right? And I think that's very, very crucial for, for our industry and, and just have an open conversation with my own team. Here's, here's my background, right? This is my story. This is what I did processing post closing, secondary and capital markets. I asked the questions, I did my research, I went through various classes, right, to, to learn and, and to not only educate myself, but be able to bring the education back to my team. And just having an open forum on my team, like, hey, if you ever have any questions or you want to see something, please reach out. I'd be happy to show you whatever I can and if I don't know the answer, I will find an answer for you. Right. And then as far as like the lo piece of it, you know, just being, being up to date and current with what's going on in the industry, right? And just being able to relay that to the ELO so that they can explain to the borrowers like, hey, we had a Fed announcement this week and this is what happened in the market and this is why you're seeing, you know, rates rise, market volatility, and just being able to have those conversations so they can relay it in a high level way to their, to their clients, I think is important. So that's why we, you know, we have the monthly calls and, and Eric here at Novus, he does a great job having town hall calls, monthly sales calls, ops calls. So everyone's on the same page, Everyone knows what is Novus doing, but also what is the industry doing, what's the market doing, right. To be able to take that education and that information back to the street.

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Yeah, absolutely. And then that's where technology's really helped recently on, on some of those things. And we couldn't have this show without technology. Our lenders couldn't do what they do today without some of the partners they have or the technology they have. So we're going to, here are some of the sponsors that help make our show possible. We couldn't do it without them. And on the other side, we'll hear more about your story, more about Novus, and drive it home to the finish line and complete the hour. Thank you.

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All right, thanks again to our sponsors, really appreciate it and if you enjoy the show, please give us a like a subscribe. You're listening on the audio podcast. Any sort of follow or comment is really appreciative. We're here again today with Ashley Puckett of Novus Home Loans on the capital markets. She's been educating us and as Mike says, my partner capital market sounds fancy. Like watching a movie on Wall Street. What does the day to day life look like? Like in front of a computer of somebody in in capital markets.

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Yeah. So first thing in the morning I'm opening up our nightly reports. We use MCT Mortgage Capital Trading as our hedge analytics platform and provider. So they generate nightly set of reports. So I that's the first thing I'm looking at. I'm looking at my position. I'm looking to see where we came in overnight to make that decision. Hey, do I need to put coverage on this morning? Can I wait it out till later in the day? What does our fallout look like? Do I have any loans that aren't pricing out that I need to be able to update in the system? Right. So it doesn't affect our mark to market valuation of the pipeline. Just really looking for key indicators. You know this pricing looks off. Let me dig into it. Right. So that's really the first, first step of my morning is, is doing that obviously checking emails, looking to see what's going on in the market and that's kind of how I start my day.

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And capital markets is not all just rate tables. Right. It's a lot of guidelines and coming up with product that you can then come up with guidelines to try and help people get homes. What advantages have you had being a processor and along your journey into capital markets? I'm sure you've had stories where you were chasing conditions and conditions means matching guidelines. But yeah, how do you think that has helped you have empathy for the people that are trying to complete the guidelines that you put out to the, to the market at Novus.

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Yeah, I mean I think it's helped tremendously. Even though I wasn't in processing for long, I did it for like six months and moved to post closing. But sitting in that seat and, and knowing what they go through, right, you have a borrower, this is the biggest transaction of their life, right? And them just being held up by, you know, two, three conditions and having to get documentation to clear those before the underwriter approves the file. Just knowing, I mean they're just sitting there, right, Pins and needles, they're waiting to buy the home, they're waiting to get this cash out refi. To get funds to, to use where they need it. And yeah, just sitting in that seat just, it does make me feel for them and it makes us on our side to like you. We want to put out good products, right? We want to put out good products that aren't necessarily going to have to be conditioned, you know, 20, 20 line items, right. Like, we want to make it easy and seamless for the borrower's transaction and for everyone involved with that too. But what's kind of helped me in my journey is sitting in that seat, moving to post closing and really learning documentation where I can still go in today, I can dig into a file, I know what I'm looking at and just kind of guiding even my team, people that haven't really sat anywhere else besides a lock desk, right, Saying like, hey, this is how I'm going in, this is what I'm looking for in the file. These are the key points, this is what the condition is, this is how we need to clear it. Do we need to recalculate dti? Do we need to look at the income, do we need to do a harder look in, at the appraisal asset statements, whatever it may be and, and being able to know like, okay, you know, a new investor wants us to sign up with them on and they have a million overlays. Well that's not really going to work for us, right? Like, and knowing we're going to have to like really ask the borrower for a lot of documentation for this product and be being able to make those decisions. And then on the post closing side, I did QC auditing and post closing I worked investor conditions, I helped come up with guides and loan deliveries and all that kind of stuff. And yeah, I think it just, it's, it's a different course than most secondary and capital markets people. And I tell people that ask me about them. Like I actually love my path. Right. It's a little different processing, post closing, then secondary and capital markets. But I feel like it gave me such a good base of knowledge and sitting on both sides of the transaction right up front and the back end to really get that like all encompassing feel of the whole loan process.

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A couple quick questions based on what you said so the audience can live this. Can you describe to them what an overlay is?

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Yeah, an overlay would be if you have a guideline set that's that that we are underwriting to. So say if you have agency guidelines that you're underwriting too and you want to sell it, let's do just say to a regular aggregator, I don't want to name any names but just you want to sell it to, to a non agency buyer. They have their own meaning. Like I mean like yeah, so non agency being anyone outside of Fannie, Freddie or Jenny. Right. So any other investor besides that they have their own set of guidelines and we would call those overlays. Right. So you know, the agencies may accept, let's just say DTI of 50% as long as it's, you know, DU approve eligible. But then you may have an overlay with an investor that says max DTI is 45% no matter what the AUS says. That is what I would consider an overlay.

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That is awesome. And your answer actually got me to ask. This is fun. Another question. Do you want to tell people what DTI is?

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Debt to income ratio. And so do you mean to explain what it is?

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You know we used to not do it, but actually my father in law listens to my podcast and he's like you use way too many acronyms. And I was like, all right, if you're listening, I will try and catch any acronym that somebody says and explain what it is. So yeah, think of it as you're talking to somebody not in the industry. More on our audio podcast side.

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Yeah, so DTI is debt to income ratio and there are, there are two sides to that. So you have a front end ratio which would be all of your housing expense added up divided by your monthly income. The back end ratio, which is what we use for qualifying on a loan, would be all of your expenses and the housing ratio divided by your income and that's what we would qualify you on for your debt to income ratio.

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That was much shorter and to the point than I could do. So appreciate that. Final question for the non mortgage people. You said your role was post close. I don't know how long you were in it. But as a consumer, do I need to know who a post close person is and what does a post. And then I would ask, can you explain what a post closing role is?

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Yeah. So post closing, just as it sounds is once you close on your home loan, this is the next department it goes to surpass closing past your transaction being funded. You get the funds to buy your home, you get the funds from your refinance cash out refi. It goes to the post closing department. So what post closing does is we get your closed loan package into an office, right. And they are stacking it in a certain order. They are making sure all the documentation assigned correctly. Believe it or not, you know, notaries attorneys, they miss things on occasion. A line's not signed, the lines not dated. So they're really making sure your closing package that you sign at the table is accurate and correct. Right. And you might would hear from a post closing department if, let's say your deed of trust, your mortgage, your notes, you miss signing it, you miss dated it, they would be contacting you maybe not directly, but maybe through your loan originator to get a new document sign. Right. You may also hear from a post closing department. If we get the file to an investor and something was missed during the underwriting, the processing of your file upfront, it happens all the time to all the companies. Right. It's, it's, I mean just a natural occurrence. So you might would hear either from post closing or from the lo. Hey, we need this additional documentation so that we can sell your loan to our investor.

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And that's a tricky role because the urgency's gone. I already got my cash out refinance, I already bought my house.

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Right.

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I'll get it over to you, but no urgency. But at the same time, you as a borrower are legally obligated, right. To fill that.

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Yeah. You sign a compliance document at closing saying that you will, you know, submit documentation and help us in selling the loan, essentially.

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So finish this sentence for any processor or post closing listening, you could choose which one. But the fastest way, you said you love all the lanes. The fastest way out of your lane is this.

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Be curious, ask questions, go to the departments. If you know, if I'm a processor and I want to learn more about underwriting closing back in operations, go to that department. Just reach out and ask like hey, I am curious on what this department does. Can, do you have time to show me? Can you answer my questions and kind of go from there? That's what I did.

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As we get here towards the end, I think one of the things we like to do is we try to be a place for transparency on the mortgage companies in this industry. So Novus Home Mortgage, can you tell us about the company itself, especially in the lens of a loan officer maybe thinking of coming there, or maybe was looking at other mortgage companies and didn't even think to look at Novus Home Mortgage? Why? Why should they look?

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Yeah, so we have a great leadership team that is uber transparent with everyone, which I think a lot of our branch managers and los absolutely love. They know that they have a direct connection to the exec team, especially for a company our size. We're forecasting to fund three and a half billion this year. Right. And so when you get to a company of this size or larger, it's harder to be able to connect with the leadership team, different departments. And so I think our exec team has done a great job, even though we're so big now, keeping that transparency, keeping that line of communication open as if we are a smaller company. And I think that's important, especially as we've been in this very volatile market over the last few years and. And being able to have that outreach and being able to hop on the phone, you know, get an answer from all the way at the top also, too. Novus. We're a division of Exonia Bank. Exonia bank is a small, privately owned bank in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin, which means that we're licensed in all 50 states. We have an expansive product set. If you don't see a product that you need, I feel like our investor relations team, capital markets and exec team, we're always looking into what's the next. Right. Is there something maybe not mainstream that we can get this production into selling to? Right. So we're always thinking, like, what's next? Who can we contact? We have these ideas. So we're. I feel like we're constantly evolving. And then on the technology front, our technology team is amazing. They are building out some really, really great internal AI solutions for us to kind of bring that technology to the forefront. Right. To better assist our loan originators, better assist operations, capital markets make our lives a little bit easier. We are not just in the weeds all the time. So I feel like they've really touched every single department, which then in return helps the loan originators, right. When they have their clients sitting out there knowing that we can get files through the system and we have certain, you know, guardrails in place without it being, oh, it's going to take three weeks for this loan to go through underwriting? No, it'll take a few days. You know what I mean? And so the exec team has done a really, really good job making sure that the LOS have what they need for their borrowers, but also for us too, on the team.

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Seems like the perf, like just an amazing combination when you have that IMB type feel in your DNA, but you have the backing of a bank. I can name three or four that just seem to have figured it out. You guys being one of them MBAs up here in Chicago. We talked about the certified mortgage bankers earlier. I heard you're planning an amazing race. Did I get the wrong details or are you in charge of that?

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No, I'll be there. Yeah, I, I sit on the CMB networking and marketing committees. So we have been heavily planning that over the last few months. So I am excited to, to get everyone there on Saturday and just have a fun time together.

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When we last met, that final question. When we last met, Diego led the room with what was your best and worst underwriting decision? Or what was an underwriting decision that came back and bit you? The room really struggled with answering it. And I think it's just inherent in the fact that probably their best story is not the, the greatest one they want to go tell publicly. In fact, Meg Handy just did an amazing speech. It was one of the better ones I, I've seen in a long time. But she started it off with a story about a clerical error she made. And I think the loan ended up not funding on Christmas Eve and it needed to. And he was like, and I haven't told that story in 22 years, but I'm telling it now. And like, this is how I've come to own it, et cetera, et cetera. And I think that's a lot with underwriting. So I, I two questions. Would you, would you want to share your answer or what do you think would have been a. And it was my idea. So you, you can, you can come at me. It wasn't Diego's idea for that question, but what do you think is a better ice breaking question for the mortgage industry?

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All right, so I did. So I don't, I don't have a specific underwriting exception story like worst or best. But I did reach out to my SVP of credit risk and I asked her today, like, what is one of off the top of your mind, like, what's one of the better exceptions stories? And like, what happened with it? And she said that There was a loan originator and I don't know what company this was at. I don't know how long ago this was, but she told me the loan originator asked for an exception to close the loan without the appraisal and then to obtain the appraisal post close. And she was like, that was a no. That was a hard no. Like, we would never do that. Right?

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Yeah.

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And so she's like, yeah, I mean, they were a little upset, but no, we're not going to do that. If the loan requires an appraisal, you're going to have an appraisal before we close the loan.

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Yeah. I talked to actually a bank yesterday and they were telling a story where they valued the home, like at 675 and the buyer like, and it was listed like 850, and the buyer just really wanted to buy it at 850. So the seller ended up coming up with an appraisal where it got to 850. But all of the comps were plus 175, 000, plus 150, 000, plus 140, 000. And this is just not a liquid asset. If, yeah, you know, if we ever had that, we can't, you know, this is where it is. And I think the, the buyer ended up getting 50, 000 off and paid cash the rest of the way and, you know, obviously didn't use that appraisal. But exceptions are out there and always interesting to hear them. And I'm glad in both cases, those, those exceptions were not granted.

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Yeah.

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I appreciate you taking all the time to come up, come on the show. I don't know if you have any final thoughts or anything you wanted to get off your chest before we end, but again, appreciate you coming on the show.

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Yeah, of course. Thank you all so much for having me.

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Thank you for joining us on this journey into the heart of mortgage innovation. Every mortgage has a story and we're here to help you write yours. If you enjoyed today's insights, please subscribe. Leave a comment, Share it with your network and connect with us on social media. Until next time, keep pushing the boundaries and uncovering the stories that drive our industry forward. Thank you for joining us on this journey into the heart of mortgage innovation. Every mortgage has a story and we're here to help you write yours. If you enjoyed today's insights, please subscribe. Leave a comment, share it with your network and connect with us on social media. Until next time, keep pushing the boundaries and uncovering the stories that drive our industry forward.

Be In All The Lanes with Ashley Puckett

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