Stop Calling Everything AI ft. Quinton Harris

Hello once again to all of our lovely readers and listeners of The MikedUp Show! Our 5 season has gotten off to an amazing start, and we have some incredible guests in store. And speaking of incredible guests..

For our 3rd episode of S5, we talked with Quinton Harris of Texana Bank Mortgage about an array of very timely topics for the industry today, from leadership and recruiting to tech and AI governance. Quinton has spent more than 20 years in the business, built and mentored high performing teams, produced across countless cycles, and created a robust public platform through his podcast, ‘What’s Your One More?’ What stood out most is how Quinton sees that the challenges ahead are wholly different from the past, and what must be done to meet them.

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RENTING TALENT IS A WASTE OF TIME

One of the most forceful themes from our chat with Quinton was his belief in building talent internally instead of simply renting it from competitors. He traced his own path from college straight into mortgage, then production, then into leadership, and eventually building large teams.

But the real turning point came when he decided to stop relying so heavily on recruiting experienced originators from other companies. That choice challenged one of mortgage’s most common, and long-lasting, habits. For decades, the industry has recycled the same producers, chasing production from one shop to the next. Quinton saw the limitations of that model. Producers can’t work forever, and LOs can often be enticed to move for pay, title, or a new promise of growth. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can create a revolving door instead of a foundation.

His alternative was to recruit younger talent from colleges, bring them into the industry, train them, and give them a real growth ladder. That approach created what he compared to a Nick Saban-style coaching tree. Those people may no longer work under him, but they are now succeeding across Florida and beyond because they learned early how to build businesses, recruit, lead teams, and produce at a high level

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4:10 - 4:32 -- "The thing that drove me the most about this industry is that I grew up in a household where renting was the norm. For years, my parents struggled, but they always provided. It was a tough environment, moving house to house and renting in different school districts, and so on. So being able to create the American Dream for other people was not only comforting, but it was cool to see."

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6:48 - 7:16 -- "I think that the turning point for us was in 2011 when we decided to break away from the norm and not focus on hiring people that were at other companies. You know, this industry has a trend of wanting to recruit people like that and bring them into the fold. To me, that's a revolving door, and it's very hard to build a foundation on that. So we took the approach of going out to colleges and recruiting graduates, bringing them into the industry and showing them the way."

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Their voice agents handle borrower calls around the clock, helping lenders double qualified leads.

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SUSTAINED GROWTH NEEDS A PATHWAY, NOT A PAY PLAN

To expand upon the above, Quinton said loan officers generally move for two reasons: money or opportunity. Sometimes it’s better pricing or the belief that they can close more loans. Other times, it is because they see a path to something more. That second point is where many companies struggle. In mortgage, the ladder can be short. LO, sales manager, team lead . and then maybe the path stops. There can only be one president of a company, even if 15 people want the role. When ambitious people feel capped, they start looking elsewhere.

The solution is not pretending everyone can be CEO someday. It’s creating honest pathways. Quinton described the need to set clear metrics for support, leadership, and growth. If someone wants an LOA, a team member, or management opportunity, the answer cannot simply be based on who asks the loudest. It has to be tied to production, readiness, and the ability to create a real problem for leadership to solve. One of Quinton’s best lines was, “Create the problem. I promise I’ll go find the solution.” We love that. Leadership means knowing the strengths, capabilities, and realistic lanes for everyone in your organization.

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REMLO & THE FUTURE OF REAL ESTATE-MORTGAGE INTEGRATION

That brought us to REMLO, the program that Quinton said helped lure him to Texana Bank Mortgage. REMLO stands for ‘Real Estate Mortgage Loan Originator,’ and it is built around the dual-capacity guidance that allows real estate agents to participate more directly in the mortgage process when properly licensed, trained, and governed.

What makes the program interesting is not only that it gives agents another way to earn compensation, it also places them closer to the financing process from the outset. Many agents are already doing handling tasks that resemble origination, like discussing affordability, timelines, docs, and buyer readiness. REMLO formalizes that connection through licensing, training, and pairing the agent with experienced loan partners. Agents don’t have to worry about finding out at the last minute about loan problems. They’re already part of the process if and when issues arise.

FundingShield is the market leader in embedded wire and title fraud prevention, closing agent vetting, and compliance automation. With over $4.5 trillion in mortgage and real estate transactions protected, our solutions deliver unmatched security and efficiency. Lenders rely on our real-time, source-verified, decision-ready data to safeguard funds, streamline workflows, and reduce operating costs across closing and title workflows. Contact sales@fundingshield.com to discover how we can help you close with confidence.

WHAT AI REALLY MEANS IN THE LENDING LANDSCAPE

Our final major discussion theme was technology, specifically AI. Quinton’s view is practical and appropriately cautious. He made an important distinction between automation and AI, noting that many things being called AI are really just workflow automation. Moving faster is useful, but it is not the same as real intelligence. The bigger issue is governance. In a business built on sensitive consumer data, careless AI use could create enormous risk. Quinton said Texana’s AI work is still in pilot because they are building governance and compliance protections. We think that’s the right posture.

He pointed out that some lenders are already putting borrower information into public AI tools without fully understanding the implications. That may be convenient today, but it could become tomorrow’s class-action problem. The point is balance. AI should be embedded into the conveyor belt, not treated as a separate entity that is now running the show. The goal isn’t to replace the human relationship, but to make your people more effective. Achieving that goal means that everyone benefits.

Most lenders have already invested in AI. But it’s not actually reducing work. A lot of automation projects improve individual tasks but leave the same validation steps, reviews, and operational bottlenecks in place. That's why cost per loan often doesn't move as much as expected.

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9:57 - 10:37 -- "By hiring new blood into the industry, you get a lot of different byproducts you're not normally accustomed to seeing. Meaning that it's going to come with more enthusiasm about having their first job. And it's going to come with an attitude of doing whatever management tells them to do to get loans closed. By no means am I saying they're subservient. I'm saying they don't have any ingrained habits or history to tell them different... They're not expecting to get a job at UPS as a truck driver and become President the next year. They're expecting a growth ladder."

Full episode

To hear more lively discussions and special guest insights in the realm of mortgages and real estate, check out TheMikedUp Show with Mike Kelleher and Michael Zau, every Thursday at 2pmET!

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